Florida Panthers Training Camp Weekend Roundup

No shortage of physicality, O'Brien had quite a few crunchers, including a big one on Rocco Grimaldi against the penalty box wall.  Jonathan Racine slammed Jimmy Hayes into the bench, the only reason he didn't go over was because he slammed right into Tomas Kopecky, who had just changed.  Connor Brickley was on either end of a few including an incidental knee he took from Butler, he went off shaken up but didn't miss a shift, and Bolland lambasted Racine into the other bench. 

The goalies were pretty good as indicated by the 1-1 score. However, new Panthers' goalie Montoya spent much of the time scrambling.  There were multiple dogpiles in the crease during his half.  Yet through all of the scrambles he had and some very poor decisions, the only goal he gave up was the deflection.

Dan Ellis was solid (shutout in the first half) though there was much less action against him, he had one point where there was a turnover down low and he stopped Bergy, then robbed Grimaldi on the rebound.

Houser was fine in his effort (shutout in the second half) and Brittain was too.  It was very interesting to see a Willie Mitchell-Aaron Ekblad pairing.  Putting the number one overall pick with a veteran, fresh off a Stanley Cup victory, is something that many around the team saw as a positive.

Saturday, September 20th:

Practice group was a good one

RED:
Huberdeau-Trocheck-Crabb
Mitchell-Ekblad

WHITE:
Bergenheim-Shore-Grimaldi
Campbell
Luongo 

The White team mixed up some of the lines during the scrimmage, and Pirri was at Center most of the day.

All of the lines were the same from yesterday on Red aside from Brad Boyes, Brett Olson and John McFarland, as well as Dimitry Kulikov and Shane Taker being added, and White added Quinton Howden, Derek MacKenzie and Logan Shaw.

The thought is that White had to change things up because Connor Brickley banged knees with another player and was helped off the ice after a collision behind the net. This was on the second shift of the game and the second day in a row which he suffered a knee injury, he didn't come back out for the rest of the game.

Other combos White tried in addition to their preset lines were;

Howden-Pirri-Thornton 
Fleischmann-Martindale-Hawrlyuk
Jokinen-Martindale-Lammikko 
Howden-Barkov-Hawrlyuk
Shaw-Pirri-Lammikko

Ellis and Montoya were the goalies for the first half.
Brittain played for Red and Houser for White in the second half.

The practice group was high energy, and there seemed to be an apparent instant chemistry between Jonathan Huberdeau and Rocco Grimaldi, both drafted in 2011. Every single player in the practice group looked very good.

Day two's scrimmage had a final of 3-3.  The scrimmage had a slightly faster pace than yesterday, but after the early Brickley hit, the physicality was toned way back in comparison.  White took the lead when Brandon Pirri hit the post on an early breakaway, Jayce Hawrlyuk hit the post on the rebound and Tomas Fleishmann cleaned it up beating Ellis.

Brad Boyes scored on a turnaround shot in the slot after a turnover, it was very weak, so there must have been no way Al Montoya ever saw it to have it beat him high glove the way it did.  Nick Bjugstad scored to make it 2-1 Red on a partial breakaway where he snapped it and beat Michael Houser low before crashing into him hard, everyone was ok. 

Hawrlyuk tied the game after Brittain made an awful turnover from behind the net and Jayce just tapped it into the empty net. White took the lead after about five minutes of disgusting, sloppy, 2010 Panthers hockey where nobody could even complete a pass.  It occurred when Pirri and Juho Lammikko had a 2-on-1 and Lammikko buried the give-and-go.

Shortly after Red appeared to have tied it but it was batted in by a high stick (forgot who it was, might have been Bjugstad) but on the next faceoff, Red took control and hit Bjugstad streaking down the right wing and he sniped a beauty past Houser. 

Some guys definitely stood out on this day; Boyes looked smooth out there, Fleischmann and Kulikov as well. Pirri looked good again, and was decent on the draws, as he was playing a mix of Center and Left Wing.  Hawrlyuk and Howden are right up there with Grimaldi in terms of their energy levels.

Lammikko looks very solid out there as well.  Kopecky had a typical Kopecky game where he got some scoring chances but fanned on the puck and turned it over multiple times and Shayne Taker was looking decent but nothing special as of right now.  This writer must say, to that point, about the disappointment felt in the direction of Jonathan Racine. After a stellar D-camp where he looked like the BEST defenseman there, whenever the puck was near him he bobbled it, he looked exactly like how he looked when drafted; he looked raw but physical, but not good with the puck (which was not the case in D-camp as he looked great overall). Dylan Olsen, while not playing great, looked confident to that point, he was throwing out some stretch passes that were connecting much of the time, and he battled hard in the corners. 

A couple notes:

Erik Gudbranson was missing, he would have been in the practice group with Campbell but was out for the day, everything was fine however.

It was apparent Roberto Luongo was being saved for the Fan Fest on Sunday.

Aleksander Barkov had limited action in the second half.

Sunday, September 21st:

Plenty of energy in both the practice session and the scrimmage. The teams changed colors. Due to the knee injury, Connor Brickley was absent from on-ice activities, so there was a funky arrangement in the practice group.

WHITE:
Kopecky-Hodges-Hayes
Robak-O’Brien-Ekblad

RED:
Fleischmann-Hawrlyuk-Ekblad
Gudbranson
Brittain

Flash and Hayes looked good for the forwards. Ekblad and Gudbranson looked good for the D-men. Guddy's shot looks much better.

Lines for the day:

WHITE:
Upshall-Bjugstad-Basaraba
Huberdeau-Trocheck-Crabb
Wilson-Bolland-Butler
McFarland-Olsen-Boyes

Mitchell-Brown
Petrovic-Parlett
Kulikov-Taker
Luongo
Ellis

RED:
Lammikko-Barkov-Jokinen
Bergenheim-Shore-Grimaldi
Howden-MacKenzie-Shaw
Pirri-Martindale-Thornton (Pirri was moved around a little)

Campbell-Zanon
McFadden-Weegar
Racine-Olsen
Montoya
Houser

The intensity was there in the scrimmage, but yet again, not overly physical with the big hits. However, the guys were playing for keeps out there. Grimaldi put Red on top early after coming in on a partial breakaway and firing a wrister that beat Luongo short side low glove.

Lu looked good after that goal though. He robbed Juho Lammikko who had a great chance from the circle when Jussi Jokinen fed him a beautiful pass, and he made a few other decent stops. Near the end of the first half, Drew Shore took a low shot that got Josh Brown in the ankle and he was shaken up but stayed out.

Early in the second, there was a "penalty" and MacKenzie Weegar was given a penalty shot and Ellis made a really nice stop to keep it at only a 1-0 deficit. A little later on, Willie Mitchell threw one high in the air to the front of the net and it looked like Scottie Upshall got a stick on it and it went through Houser to tie the game.

Good action lasted for a little while then Bobby Butler blew a nice wrister by Houser with about 90 seconds left. Then right at the end, Jonathan Huberdeau was passed the puck in the neutral zone and made a fantastic move at the offensive blue line to get around the defender and put it in the empty net for a 3-1 White win.

Vincent Trocheck looked pretty good, Kulikov was good, Jonathan Racine was hard to play against and Dylan Olsen looked to play well defensively. Rocco Grimaldi was great, he never stops moving. He has so much energy and the puck seems to just find him. On the occasion it doesn't find him, he finds it. He's also pretty strong for his size (which he has to be), Many Panthers fans love him, but the best thing for his career is to let him play in the AHL. It's the top developmental league, and this kid's never had to go through the rigors a full professional hockey season. No reason to throw him to the wolves, we have the depth where we can afford to let guys take time. He should definitely be one of the first callups though.

The Finns looked good, especially Bergy; he and Rocco were flying. Jokinen and Barkov look alright together, but Juho Lammikko had phenomenal chemistry with those two, he was the one that was open and getting fed by them all weekend. I like Juho more and more every time I see him, really excited for this kid. It was a slightly different version of the "Finnish Connection" than most were expecting (replace Juho with Sean Bergenheim), but that was one of the best lines over the weekend.

They were playing hard, there were some feisty moments like at point where Josh McFadden played the body hard on Nick Bjugstad and separated him from the puck, then they started really going at it, Nick looked really pissed and gave him a couple whacks, which were returned. Racine and Olsen were pounding guys in the corners and behind the net. All of the goalies were solid as well.

Fellow VAVEL USA Panthers contributor Keegan Harricharan was also in attendance and here are some of his performance rankings:

Most Impressive: Brandon Pirri - Added some weight and carried the offense.

Most Disappointed: Tomas Kopecky - Too slow to the puck. 

Looking for a job: Shane O'Brien - Outworked everyone.

Surprised by: Juho Lammikko - Kid has a great pair hands to go along with excellent on ice vision. 

Goalie of the future: Sam Brittain - Besides a couple mental mistakes his upside is much higher than Houser's. 

Biggest winner: Strength and conditioning - Minus Kopecky, the team looked strong and fit.

Added Bonus: Willie Mitchell looked great!

On Saturday, Panthers Television Play-By-Play announcer Steve Goldstein, Color man and Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Denis Potvin (returning after a four years with the Ottawa Senators and Sportsnet, he was the Panthers' Color man for the first fifteen years of the franchise's existence), and former NHL defenseman, Radio Play-By-Play announcer and Vice President of Broadcasting, Randy Moller (Bill Lindsay, former Panthers Color man was supposed to be there, but showed up twenty seconds after it ended).

Our VAVEL USA team went to the broadcast forum after and got some good/interesting quotes (They aren't direct, but you'll get the gist of what they were saying.

Potvin on time in Ottawa/Toronto: "There are some fatheads up there, even though they're incredibly devoted, with how many of them act, I'm not sure it's the 'Hockey Capital of the World'."

Moller on Lindsay: "Billy will have an important, an expanded role on the broadcasts, handling pregame and postgame, along with intermissions by the locker rooms & with Drew, and he will be between the benches for plenty of games, both at home and on the road."

Goldstein on production: "We have new and extra cameras for every home game, all of which will be televised, FOX has put more resources into the Panthers, and all of the NHL teams they work with." (Moller then gave a specific example about the little camera they have in the locker room, it's been replaced with a brand new robotic one.)

Moller on opening night: "When we kick the Lightning's [expletive] to open the year, we will have an extended Panthers Live."

Goldstein on his and Randy's meeting with Vinny and Doug: "Vinny Viola and Doug Cifu are all in on winning, winning the right way, and winning the right way in South Florida. The commitment is there from ownership, now it comes down to the performance on the ice. They're focused on hockey. (To Randy) Remember how we felt after walking out of that meeting? We were both like 'wow'."

Some ribbing between Goldie and Denis: G; "Denis and I go back to my twenties, and I believe he was only fifty-something back then" P; "I remember when he had hair."

Preseason:

The Panthers' first preseason game is Wednesday at 7:30 at the BB&T Center.  There will be radio coverage on 560 WQAM.

The projected lineup, according to George Richards, Panthers Beat Writer for the Miami Herald, is:

Huberdeau-Bjugstad-Upshall;

Bergenheim-Bolland-Hayes;

Pirri-Trocheck-Hawrlyuk;

Howden-Olson-Grimaldi

O'Brien-Petrovic;

Olsen-Kulikov;

Robak-Weegar.

G - Ellis, Houser.